The week has flown by and I thought perhaps it was time for a little light-heartedness given the growing human trafficking crisis news in the region this week. I finally, after weeks, had time for a little relaxation and got exactly the chuckles I needed courtesy of the Bangkok Post. (For clarity allow me to say I’m a huge fan and read it religiously every day here but the culture differences do often provide a bit of humor as you’ll soon see.)

Today’s Sunday version of the BP has several areas that are snapshots of larger stories in the news. A few snippets that brought a good chuckle this morning:

“A Mayalasian court will decide that political cartoonist Zunar is guilty of nine counts of sedition for being a major pain in the extreme lower back in the ruling regime.”

“Vietnam’s National Assembly opens its summer session. They aren’t much to behold but elections are legal in Vietnam.”

“Microsoft will allow you, yes you, to buy a Lenovo A7000 flagship smartphone for 5290 baht from the Lazada website from noon to 2pm.” (And yes that is a direct quote.)

“The Seoul High Court is expected to deliver a verdict in Nutgate, the risible (but appalling) behaviour of the privileged Heather Cho Hyun-ah, who was just smart enough to be born as the daughter of Korean Air chairman and CEO Cho Yang-ho – but not an iota smarter.”

“Today is the deadline for the waffling NBTC chairman Takorn Tantasith to decide once and for all whether to boot digital TV payments down the road. Mr. Takorn was supposed to collect payment from digital broadcasters, but they whined incessantly about not making money and Mr. Takorn was inclined to humour them by not making them pay this year. Anti-graft groups are unamused.”

“Acquitted: By a Myanmar court dedicated to upholding military dignity above all else; two soldiers who killed a journalist for doing his job. The dead man was Ko Par Gyi. He was covering a battle between the army and ethnic Karen, so naturally e was arrested. Then of course he tried to escape and a private and a lance corporal had to shoot him to prevent that. Kicker: To be official, the court decision must be approved by the armed forces commander in chief.”

Thank you, Bangkok Post, for not only your coverage of the news but for providing it at times in a way that is refreshing. Often the news is delivered in such a staid manner that it can be hard to see the human connection behind it. I hate to quote so liberally but as you can see from the above, they were just priceless!